


The Truth of our Imagination

by Yixings_Yeoja



Category: NINE PERCENT (Band), 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: M/M, Memory Loss, Nex7, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-05-20 12:03:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14894301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yixings_Yeoja/pseuds/Yixings_Yeoja
Summary: What do you do when one day, you wake up, all fine and normal, not realizing that your entire existence is to be flipped over?





	1. Chapter 1

Zhengting was not supposed to overwork himself. Today was supposed to be one of those days when he would take a break and eat something other than the ramen. He had promised it to Justin. But his legs didn't let him move when he saw the top 20 getting announced. He told himself that it was okay. It was okay to let himself loose for one day, but how could he when his heart hurt so much?  
No, he decided. He absolutely cannot, would not give up until he gets his chance to debut. He will keep going- until one day, he gets to stand on stage. And so, Zhengting forgets everything else and keeps continuing to practice. And practice. And practice. Until, he feels the ground under him sway. He can swear that he felt the effect of the wooden floor on his head, but before his can realize what is going on, everything goes dark.

 

When Zhengting gain his consciousness back, he's in a dark room and it takes him a few seconds before he's able to recognize the fact that he's not in his room. He gets up, trying to look around for a source of light but a severe headache stops him from doing so.  
"Ge?!" He hears a voice, Justin maybe, calling him. "Zhengting Ge!!", he hears Justin shouting and his headache intensifies.  
"Huang Minghao stop shouting" Zhengting replies trying to make the younger stay quiet. The lights switches on and it's so bright, it makes the pain worse. "Oh my god. Ting ge, are you okay"  
"Justin...my head hurts." Zhengting manages to reply. "I- I'll call the doctor. Y-you wait here, okay." He hears Justin saying before hearing a door open and someone running.  
Zhengting isn't really sure what's going on but he hears voices and footsteps and someone is making him drink something. Unable to even open his eyes, Zhengting just goes on with it before dozing off. 

The next time when he opens his eyes, it's not dark anymore and thankfully, his headache is gone too.  
Zhengting gets up from his bed and as he looks around, realizes he's in a hospital. He then notices Justin sleeping on the couch and feels bad for the younger. He must have made him worried. He tries to recall what happened last night.  
He remembers watching produce 101 and getting disheartened. The memory brings back pain. He's happy for the finalists but it still hurts.  
Then it strikes his mind, 'I fainted' he think and remembers hitting his head hard.  
That must explain the headache.  
He looks at the time. "10:30 AM?!!!" he shouts. Oh hid, their dance teacher is going to kill them for missing his class.  
He rushes towards Justin to wake him up.  
"Justin! Justin! Wake up!!!"  
Zhengting watches as Justin opens one eye and looks at him. "What is it ge?"  
"What is it?!! Are you kidding me? It is 10:30 AM."  
Justin wakes up, his face confused, scratching his neck and stretching his arms. "Faster Justin!!! Stop being so lazy we are already late."  
"Late for what?"  
"Practice"  
This seems to have gotten Justin's attention and his eyes grow large as he looks at Zhengting. He gets up from the couch in a flash.  
"Ge!! Are you awake? How are you feeling? Does your head still hurts?" Zhengting rolls his eyes "I'm alright Minghao but if we do not hurry, we might not be okay. So now come on, let's go."  
"Go where?"  
"To the company, where else? Now hurry up or else Teacher He."  
"Teacher. He?" he hears Justin ask. Zhengting sighs.  
"Listen, don't waste time. We are already late.  
" Ge what are you saying? Why would we go to Teacher He's class?"  
"Because we need his help if we really want to debut. Now please don't ask any more questions."  
Zhengting holds Justin's hand in an attempt to pull him but the boy's looks frozen in his place.  
"Justin!" Zhengting looks at the younger with questioning eyes.  
"Ge, Ge you wait here. I - I have to call the doctors so you just wait here. Promise me you won't go anywhere." Justin says and before Zhengting can even react, he's out of the room.  
Zhengting paces in the room, trying his best not to step out in search for the younger. It's been 10 minutes since the biy said he's going to meet the doctors and he still ain't back.  
In all honesty, Zhengting doesn't realizes why he's in a hospital. He just fainted and his injuries doesn't seem that serious either except the headache that had attacked him earlier. Zhengting decides that if Justin doesn't comes back in five minutes, he's going to hunt him and force him back to the company.  
About three minutes later though, he hears footsteps. Zhengting watches the door open as two doctors, one male one female enter the room. Behind them is a nurse and Justin, who for some reason looks worried, enters the very last.  
The female doctor speaks first. "Hello Mr Zhu, I'm your doctor Li Ai Bao." Zhengting gives her a small smile. "Oh, hello doctor. Good morning. I'm so sorry for this. Trust me I'm totally fine. I have no idea why Justin is behaving like this."  
"It's okay Mr Zhu. We anyhow have to do a check up."  
Zhengting is confused as to why they need to do a check up but he just let's the doctor do their work. He looks up at Justin, who for some reason, looks a mixture of confused and shocked.  
The doctors check his breathing and BP levels and ask him of he's hurting somewhere. He says no except for a slight pain in his arms, which he thinks is normal as to how he fainted on the floor while dancing.  
"Okay now Mr Zhengting, can you tell us what you remember?" The male doctor asks "How this happened?"  
Zhengting looks down, a bit embarrassed "Well I was practicing and because of that, I kind of forgot to eat. So as I was dancing, I felt dizzy. I remember falling on the floor of the class and then, I guess I lost consciousness."  
"Okay Mr Zhengting, uhmmm, so go you remember what date it is today?"  
Zhengting has no idea why they are asking him the date but he just goes on with it. He isn't really sure but as far as he remembers, it was the 9th.  
"June 9th?" He asks, questioningly. Remembering dates after school is a bit difficult.  
"And year. Do you remember the year?" the female doctors ask him again and Zhengting thinks, 'How odd' why are they asking him for the year. "2017"  
He hears someone gasp.  
"Ge!!"  
Justin moves towards him, his face almost on the verge of crying, tears filling his eyes. "Zheng ge, 2017 was four years ago. It's...it's 2021"


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning, this is just a filler chapter. The actual drama starts from the next one.

The first time Zhengting hears about it, he is sure he’s not heard it right. And so, he asks the doctor to repeat themselves. The second time he hears about it, Zhengting is sure he is dreaming. The third time he hears about it, Zhengting is sure everyone is pranking on him because there is no way it can be true.  
‘Partial Amnesia’  
Zhengting still can’t get his head around the word. It seemed too much superficial, too much movie-like to happen to him. Exactly! These kinds of things happen in the fiction world, not the real world.  
“Zhengting!” Zhengting hears someone- his mom- call him. He looks up to see his parents, watching him with teary eyes.  
“Mom!”  
His parent come to him, engulfing him in a hug. “We thought that we had lost you forever.”  
“It’s okay mom. I’m okay now.”  
His mother looks at him, almost on the verge of crying when his father speaks “You didn’t wake up for almost a month. You made us all so scared son.”  
Zhengting was so confused.  
“I am sorry mom. I am sorry dad. I can’t even remember what happened.”  
“Zhengzheng. Don’t think too much. It’s okay. The doctor has said not to stress over things so don’t. Just concentrate on healing, okay?” his mother tells him, patting his head.  
Although he’s unsure, Zhengting nods.  
It is, after all, the only thing he can do.

 

He learns about his life, their debut and that he is the leader of the group which is named NEX7. Zhengting spends his days watching their music videos on the internet and it all looks pretty normal to him. He doesn’t remember it but watching him and his brothers interact with each other, laugh and perform on the stage together is something Zhengting had always dreamed of. And now that he doesn’t remember the process of it, everything feels so surreal.  
But the thing that feels the most shocking is the fact about him and Wenjun.  
If Zhengting spends his days in the hospital watching any content on them, he spends his nights thinking about how Zhengting and Wenjun became him and Wenjun.  
He still remembers the evening after he woke up, a few hours after his parents left, Wenjun had barged inside and hugged him.  
Him and Wenjun. Dating. For about a year. And Zhengting couldn’t be happier.  
Debut. Dating his closest friend. Success.  
It was like he was dreaming and he was going to wake up back in the cold practice room.  
Zhengting had wished for it all to be true as he had hugged Wenjun back.

A week later, Zhengting is discharged from the hospital.  
His manager comes to pick him up with all the six boys tagging alongside him.  
Zhengting smiles. Losing his memories don’t feel that bad now that he’s gotten literally everything that he’s ever wanted in his life.

But the hole is always there.  
Like the password of his weibo account. Or why he has a single room instead of just rooming with the others.  
Or why is there a locked box with the initials "CXK" inside his cupboard.

It has been a week since that box had been bugging him. But the box is locked, and unlike his weibo password, it cannot be reset.  
Zhengting wonders why he doesn't just ask Justin or anyone else to help him with opening it.

Zhengting looks at himself in the mirror and tries to point out the differences.  
Other than being a bit slimmer, Zhengting doesn't think there's much change in him. Or maybe his shoulders have broadened a bit and his abs have become more defined.  
Zhengting smiles.  
He's being paranoid.  
The past years had been good to him. Why is he trying to think so much?  
A pair of arms circle around him.  
Zhengting looks up to see Wenjun smiling at him as their eyes meet through the mirror. "What are you thinking?"  
"Nothing" Zhengting answers with a sigh. "At least nothing that's important." He says before turning to face Wenjun and throwing himself into a hug.  
'This feels so nice' Zhengting thinks as Wenjun hugs him back. 'Nice and warm and so comforting'  
It doesn't matter if Zhengting has forgotten parts of his life and memory, it doesn't matter if that he couldn't remember his weibo password of the fact that there's a mysterious box inside his cupboard.  
What matters is that his dream of debuting has come true, his brothers are together with and he has someone whose hugs can give him the warmth and comfort he needs after a long day at the stage.

 

 

 

But is life really that simple?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for giving you guys such a short update after 15 days but trust me when I say that the next chapter is going to blow up. I mean... at least I hope that it does.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zhengting feels there is something between him and Cai Xukun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can only sincerely apologize for this lateness

Zhengting learns that the time that is spent in peace, should be appreciated, because no one knows when it will be taken away from you.  
It must have been his fault for thinking that everything was going to be all okay.  
One minute he was struggling to debut in the cold and empty practice roomand the next, he was a successful idol.  
It felt too much like a dream.  
And Zhengting was right.  
Because like every other dream, his also came to an end. It was time to face the reality.  
The only thing that Zhengting did not expect was the fact that reality came to him disguised as Cai Xukun.  
"So they want me to be a special collaboration mentor?" Zhengting remembered asking his manager.  
Apparently the show he participated in, idol producer, was in it's third season and the producers wanted him to be part of it as a mentor. "But how can I? I'm not even qualified for it?"  
"Zhengting don't be stupid. You were in the top 9 for the first season. Not to forget the fact that you were always in the top lineup. You got an A in the first evaluation, stayed in that class. You remained in the debut line through out the show. Of course you are more than eligible for it."  
It was at times like this when Zhengting realized just how much he's lost. The person his manager was describing felt entirely different from who he was.  
And that is how Zhengting gets stuck in a show he remembers nothing about. The mentors come one by one, many famous faces which he Zhengting recognizes as the biggest stars of the country. To say he is awestruck, would be correct. His manager had helped him in recognizing the people he had been acquainted with and Zhengting goes to greet them, talking casually but making sure no personal questions are being asked. He knows that his secret amnesia can become a huge problem so he has got to thread carefully, always keeping in mind that no one knows about it.  
"Oh Zhengting is that you?" he hears someone call his name. The man, shorter than Zhengting almost by a head, approaches him with smiling face. "How are you Ting? I heard the accident was bad."  
You Zhangjing. He remembers him from the show and the looked quite close in the videos of his nine percent era.  
"Ah its no big deal." he replies. I'm all ok now.  
Zhangjing once again smiles, this time more brightly. "I'm glad. I was so worried, I called Justin immediately but I couldn't rest until I had heard it from you. I would have visited sooner if it hadn't been for the schedule."  
Even of Zhengting doesn't remembers anything from his celebrity life, he does knows how packed schedules can be." It's okay. I understand."  
Also, he is glad Zhangjing didn't come to visit him. He remembers being entirely clueless when the other members had come to visit him and swarmed him in their hugs. He had to give them the excuse of his medicines for his weird behavior.  
Spending time with people whom you used to live with earlier should be easy but Zhengting had felt awkward the entire day, worrying about slipping something about his amnesia.  
"Oh! By the way have you talked to Xukun recently? The last time I talked he seemed too stressed. I was worried and thought of calling you but then your accident happened. So, is everything okay?"  
Zhengting's heart skipped a beat when he heard the name and he isn't even sure why.  
Ever since he woke up in the hospital, everything seemed to make sense. Connecting the dots was easy.  
Except that is for Cai Xukun.  
Zhengting doesn't knows what kind of relationship the two of them had. They seemed friendly enough in the show. In the later parts and throughout the entire period as nine percent, they seemed to have gotten definitely closer. But not once had the center called to ask about him. No matter how much Zhengting thought about it, it just didn't add up.  
"Umm, I haven't really talked to Xukun." he replied.  
Zhangjing's eyes grew bigger, as if something like that was even possible. "He hasn't visited?" Zhengting shook his head, confused. Were they really that close?  
"That's so strange. I remember Xukun getting stressed over the littlest of your injuries. Maybe he really is busy."  
Is he? Or did Zhengting forgot something more important?  
Their talk is interrupted as the director calls them up for shoot. They are made to sit in a room, till the trainees get settled after which they will be called out. Zhengting settles on a chair, along with 4 other mentors and looks into the recording screen.  
The trainees come in groups, dressed in blazers that look like school uniforms. There's 35 of them. Zhengting remembers the look in their eyes. They seem careful but act carefree.  
He remembers being like that on produce 101. It's nostalgic as memories which should be more than 3 years old, feel like only months ago.  
He gulps, trying to divert his mind back to the present.  
Thankfully, the director announces the start of shooting and the entire aura seems to change.  
The trainees also, somehow, change their position. It's slight, but Zhengting notices the self-consciousness in them.  
Then the camera pans over to a figure.  
"Hello nation producers and trainees. I'm nation's producer representative, Cai Xukun."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know many of you saw that one coming, but it still is a cliffhanger, right?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Umm, hello. Thanks for waiting.

On first sight, Cai Xukun is handsome. His face, his body proportions, in fact everything about him seems 'more'. Zhengting understands why he was first. Of course this person became first. His personality just calls for it.  
During his off days, Zhengting has spent searching about him just as much as he had Googled himself.  
They had seemed close.  
Those fancams he had watched. All those interactions.  
Close enough for the fans to actually create a ship.  
Zhengting had wondered if Wenjun ever felt awkward because of it.  
Zhengting looks up, his heart still beating hard.  
The trainees are called upon and he sees them talking about what the evaluation could be on and how nervous they are.  
He watches the camera pan over Cai Xukun as he explains the rules to them.  
For some reason, it becomes difficult for Zhengting to concentrate on listening.  
It's only when Zhangjing nudges him that he realises that they are called upon to the set.  
He heart once again starts thundering loudly.  
He walks in last and feels a bit nervous upon seeing all eyes on them.  
The trainees bow to welcome them and show their respect and him and the other mentors.  
Zhengting smiles at the trainees in front, remembering his days in produce 101. He realises this is the same place they filmed idol producer too but since he cannot remember any of it, it's all new. And then, finally his gaze meets Xukun's.  
Zhengting ignores his nervousness to greet Xukun with a smile but is stopped.  
There is something.  
Something in Xukun's eyes that hadn't seen in the pictures and other videos but it makes him halt.  
The moment is over before Zhengting has had a chance to grasp on what it was and he gulps.  
What the hell was that, he wonders.  
But Xukun is back to being the PD and he doesn't looks towards Zhengting for the entire time they are there.  
It's leaves a weird tightness in his heart but he ignores everything as they film.  
It is tiring to film for 10 hrs but Zhengting learns that he enjoys it.  
His group has 7 trainees, all younger than him and it feels like he's with his company juniors.  
They discuss about their parts, how to choose which position one will do and which position is good for someone. It's fun. Zhengting treats them to dinner.  
It is surprising how everyone around him thinks he's this great person when Zhengting only remembers his failures but their views make him feel good. Maybe he really did learn from his mistakes and did well.  
The next day the trainees are a lot more serious. When Zhengting visits their practice rooms, it feels hot and smells of sweat.  
He practices with them for a few hours before he has to leave for a schedule.  
Its his first with nex7 and Zhengting is sure he'll cry.  
The boys seem so natural and happy and it makes Zhengting want to thank the lords for giving them this.  
On his way back, the warmth he feels is kept by Wenjun as he puts his arm around Zhengting, asking him to rest. Zhengting smiles and wonders what did he ever do to get a life this wonderful.  
But there is one aspect where Zhengting always feels restless.  
Sleep.  
Ever since he woke up at the hospital, sleep has always been plagued with nightmares. Zhengting never remembers what they are and it leaves him more agitated.  
He ignores it.  
About a week later, it's the evaluation day and Zhengting is more nervous.  
His makeup and hair doesn't takes much time so he decides to wander around a bit, reminiscing everything he's seen in the videos.  
It all appears new to him.  
He walks around, a bit lost when he hears the sound of music and heavy steps.  
That's strange. Which trainee is practicing at this time?  
He wonders if they forgot to get ready for the evaluation.  
Zhengting goes towards the room and open the door, ready to tell whoever it is to be mindful of time but stops.  
Because dancing in the middle of the room, looking all tired and almost about to faint is Cai Xukun.  
He other doesn't notices his intrusion at first but when he does, he stops too.  
And Zhengting feels it coming back to him.  
The dizziness, the loud beating of his heart. He gulps as he watches Xukun lower the music. Then he turns to face him.  
And Zhengting realizes it's him.  
This face.  
Its the face that has been plaguing his mind and sleep.  
Zhengting isn't sure how much time passes as the two of them stare at each other.  
He's sure he wants to say something but nothing comes out.  
Finally, he hears the man in front of him exhale.  
And it brings him to reality.  
What. The. Hell.  
What is wrong with him?  
Why is he behaving like this?  
"Is there something you want?"  
He hears him speak.  
Zhengting has no idea why he wants to cry.  
He shakes his head and bolts out of the room, unable to stay there anymore.  
Why why why.  
What is wrong with him?  
He is out of breath by the time he stops. He looks around as he tries to catch his breath.  
And that is when he see it.  
The small scribbling on the wall in his handwriting.  
Xukun ☓ Zhengting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys. It's been a long time right? Well what can we do when Zhengkun basically feed us in crumbs. Just kidding. Been busy with school. Although I'm hoping to finish this before the year end. Thanks for reading it.

**Author's Note:**

> Trying to make a good chaptered Zhengkun fic. Hope everything goes well. This is for all those Zhengkunist who stay awake at night trying to find something to read.


End file.
